Who is affected? A pharmaceutical manufacturer that sells or
distributes a medication in California that is usually intended
to be self-injected at home through the use of a hypodermic
needle, pen needle, intravenous needle, or any other similar device.

What is required? A plan must be submitted to the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) that describes the actions,
if any, taken by the manufacturer to 1) support or provide for the safe collection and proper disposal of the waste
devices, and 2) educate consumers about safe sharps management and collection opportunities.

When is it due? Plans are due to CalRecycle annually by July 1.

Note: please refer to the specific language of the law for exact
compliance requirements. Also, as listed on this page in reference to SB 486 requirements, the term "sharps" does not pertain to lancets.

CalRecycle has received sharps collection and disposal plans from the entities listed below. CalRecycle is following up with known pharmaceutical manufacturers
to determine whether they are subject to the reporting requirement. Additional plans will be posted here as we receive them.

Note: CalRecycle has added a "CalRecycle received" date stamp to the
first page of each plan. Those listed below with a previous year date stamp
notified CalRecycle that their existing plan can continue to be used without
change.

Other entities in addition to pharmaceutical manufacturers provide for the safe collection and
disposal of sharps. CalRecycle will also post the sharps collection
and waste disposal plans that we receive from entities that are not
required to submit plans under SB 486.

The purpose of the above lists is to provide to the public the sharps collection and disposal plan
submitted to CalRecycle by each company listed. Inclusion in the
lists does not constitute CalRecycle's endorsement of the
company or its product(s). CalRecycle makes no representation that
the lists are complete, current, or accurate. Other disclaimers
apply. To add or remove companies from the lists, contact the staff listed at the bottom of this page. Such changes
are subject to the discretion of CalRecycle.

Do pharmaceutical manufacturers have to fund the proposed activities in the plan or provide the solution?

The pharmaceutical manufacturers affected by SB 486 have to
describe how their actions, if any, support or provide for, and
educate consumers about, the collection
and proper disposal of the waste devices. Options may include
funding the plan; providing the solution for sharps collection,
disposal, and education; helping to fund the efforts of other
stakeholders; taking actions that support collection, disposal,
and education efforts; etc.

What would this disposal plan entail? Selling an additional container to ship back, or
having some sort of drop-off service available at pharmacies?

SB 486 does not specify the level of detail so all options are
available. If the manufacturers are looking for ideas for
potential actions to include in their plans, one option may be
to look at the hundreds of collection sites in California listed
on our Sharps and Medication Disposal Directory to
get an idea of how they may support these existing solutions.
We estimate at least one-third of all collection sites are at
pharmacies. Out of California's 58 counties, one county
and one city have an ordinance that requires any retail establishment that sells
sharps to accept the used sharps for proper disposal. Other
jurisdictions are considering a similar ordinance. Approximately
50 counties provide free disposal. At least eight counties and
some cities provide free sharps containers and one county
provides free mail-back containers to its residents as long as supplies last.

Since SB 486 includes the language, “if any” in the
requirement that pharmaceutical manufacturers describe how their
actions, if any, provide for the collection and disposal of
sharps, how does this bill contribute to effective sharps
collection and disposal?

The Senate analysis
of this bill states: "According to the author's office, with the
prohibition of disposal of sharps in the
waste stream and no convenient, cost effect [sic] method of management identified, it is time to take steps to find a solution of the problem.
The first step to that is to identify what the companies that manufacture the medicines that are dispensed
through a ‘sharp’ are doing to help their customers address the disposal ban issue… The author's office believes that this bill
represents a first step toward developing an EPR [Extended Producer Responsibility] approach to the management of sharps,
and provides a way to determine what the pharmaceutical industry is doing to assist with the effort to manage sharps."

Representatives of the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society, the Diabetes Coalition of California, the
California Conference of Environmental Health Directors, and
other consumer health organizations developed
criteria (PDF, 93 KB) they will use to evaluate the plans posted on this website.

CalRecycle is not affiliated with these organizations’
criteria and shares these documents solely for informational
purposes. Pharmaceutical manufacturers’ plans are not required
to comply with these evaluation criteria and CalRecycle will not
evaluate the plans since it is not mandated in SB 486. However,
Sen. Joe Simitian, the author of SB 486,
supports
these evaluation criteria (also see the
press release [PDF, 852 KB]).